Head trauma is big news in the sports world these days. Degenerative nerve damage from contact sports—most notably chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former pro football players—has pushed athlete safety to the forefront of many discussions.

Charles Bernick, MD, MPH, the associate medical director at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas, recently wrote a column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about his work on the “The Professional Fighters Brain Health Study.”

In its sixth year, the study includes 650 professional fighters, including boxers and mixed martial artists, who are monitored over time using PET tau and MRI. The goal? To learn just what causes such damage in the brains of athletes earlier so negative consequences can be avoided.

 “Unfortunately, because it can only be diagnosed after death, there is much we don’t know about CTE,” Bernick wrote. “How many concussions or blows to the head does it take before CTE develops? Is it the number or severity of the blows to the head that is important in causing CTE? Why do some athletes develop CTE while others do not?”

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